Maple Center's Counseling Services in Jeopardy

Representatives and patients came out to support the Maple Counseling Center, a Beverly Hills mental health clinic that is facing program cuts, at the June 3 City Council meeting. The Maple Center is in the process of its annual fundraising campaign.

"The effects of these cuts are not only felt by individuals," the Maple Center's Dr. Harold Young said at the council meeting. "They will impact families, employees and the community at large for a long time to come. The Maple Center provides services that this community needs to be at full strength."

The Maple Center has already been forced to cut many psychiatric services. The remaining clients may soon have to turn elsewhere, a daunting prospect, staffers say, considering that the facility is the only mental health clinic in the city not affiliated with a hospital.

"I'm a senior, and many of the other people I know who come here, come for the senior services," said one client who preferred to remain anonymous. "It's a short walk or bus ride for us now. If the center closed, it would be hard for us to figure out taking a long trip somewhere else for what we need."

Another center regular who chose not to give her name said both her elderly father and teenage daughter have benefited from the center's services.

"It would be a shame to lose this place because it really serves the community," she said. "It feels more personal than going to some big place in another neighborhood."

In addition to counseling services and providing training for therapist interns working toward their license, the Maple Center also provides low-cost tutoring to students at four local elementary schools. At the council meeting, tutoring program supervisor Adrienne Weise expressed concerns over the program's future.

"To call this simply a tutoring program would be a tremendous disservice," Weise told council members. "Tutors and students develop a trust that has its own special life in the world."

She also pointed out that the program allows high school students to gain valuable work and life experience by serving as tutors. A donation from the Beverly Hills Rotary Club will keep the program in operation through December, but funding for spring 2011 is still short.

Young, the Maple Center's clinical director, told the council that as of July 15, senior citizens in need of counseling, and parents and children enrolled in the center's Mindful Parenting Program, will have to look elsewhere for treatment.

The Maple Center's revenue comes from municipal grants, foundation grants, fundraising events, private donations and client fees. Some clients pay as little as $1 per session because fees are based on a sliding scale. As the economy has worsened and income loss increased, client contributions have declined by about 15 percent.

In the past year, the Maple Center lost a $10,000 grant from Culver City, faced a 29 percent reduction in funding from the city of Beverly Hills (approximately $54,000) and suffered a decrease in gifts from individuals and foundations.

In order to stay open past mid-July, the senior care counseling programs will need to raise at least $30,000. The Mindful Parenting Program, which helps new parents and children form healthy, lasting bonds, needs at least $20,000. Reestablishment of psychiatric services would require $50,000 or more.

Founded in 1969, the Maple Center initially focused on drug treatment-related counseling, but has since expanded to address other mental-health related community issues. Utilizing the help of interns and peer counselors, licensed mental health professionals provide low-cost counseling and other services to hundreds of children, adults and seniors six days a week.